Looking into the widow of an abandoned hotel building and out through another window where a gull sits on a roof, in Sandown, Isle of Wight.While waiting for play to begin in yesterday's Wimbledon Men's Singles final, the BBC interviews two former contestants - Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe - and then shows the match, 30 years ago almost to the day, when Bjorg took the title from McEnroe. What stays in the memory is the contrast - not only between the two middle aged men now in front of the camera, and the agile youths flying to and fro across the court in the film, but the contrast in style - long hair then so much in evidence. Now, well, they look like somebody's uncles on holiday.
Outside the Crab and Lobster Inn in Bembridge, I ask the man called Trevor with whom we are sharing a table, how many stairs to the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge? He doesn't know. I tell him, 1, 337 stairs. How high is the bridge above the water? I ask. He doesn't know. I tell him, the length of one and a half football pitches. I happen to have this information just now, because I am looking over his shoulder at the back of a man at a neighbouring table, who is wearing a tee shirt upon which these and other facts about Sydney Harbour Bridge are inscribed.
Outside the Crab and Lobster Inn in Bembridge, I ask the man called Trevor with whom we are sharing a table, how many stairs to the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge? He doesn't know. I tell him, 1, 337 stairs. How high is the bridge above the water? I ask. He doesn't know. I tell him, the length of one and a half football pitches. I happen to have this information just now, because I am looking over his shoulder at the back of a man at a neighbouring table, who is wearing a tee shirt upon which these and other facts about Sydney Harbour Bridge are inscribed.
5 comments:
Evocative photo.
I agree with CC about you wonderful photo, Plutarch - a great abstraction of life.
You are getting about, yesterday the IOW, today Bembridge, tomorrow who knows?
Were you wearying of Trevor's company then?
CC The Crow It was a sad building on the point of falling down, but I thought that there was a little oasis of beauty barely visible on the far side.
Lucy Getting about, yes. Next post tries to explain. Trevor was not boring. Perhaps I was , though. Struck by the information on the tee shirt I was trying to entertain.
Dear Plutarch, I'm sure you entertained rather than bored, and Trevor was not put off by your apparent savant knowledge of Sydney Harbour bridge.
You could grill and regale me with the minutiae of the Regional Rail Link project for the State of Victoria ( how many miles of new track? apporx 50 km; estimated capital development cost? $4.3 billion...how do I know this? I have just picked up a copy of the Economist and opened it at random to the tenders pages) and I could only ever be charmed and amused.
Post a Comment